Religion watchdog group again calls on Buncombe TDA to rescind fresco grant

Freedom From Religion Foundation officials again called on the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority on Friday to rescind a grant it approved last year for the creation of a fresco at Asheville's Haywood Street Congregation.
Dillon Davis/Asheville Citizen Times

An early sketch of a proposed fresco that is expected to be installed at Asheville's Haywood Street Congregation. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has challenged a grant the congregation received from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority, claiming it is unconstitutional.(Photo: Haywood Street Congregation)

ASHEVILLE — Freedom From Religion Foundation officials again called on the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority on Friday to rescind a grant it approved last year for the creation of a fresco at Asheville's Haywood Street Congregation.

The Wisconsin-based foundation, responding to a Jan. 5 letter by Buncombe TDA attorney Carleton Metcalf, said in a letter Friday its issue with the $72,500 grant is the local government funding a project that is "plainly religious in nature." FFRF staff attorney Ryan Jayne argues Metcalf's analysis, which cites several past Supreme Court casesis flawed.

Jayne, who first contacted the TDA in November following a complaint by an unnamed area resident, again asked the board to rescind the grant.

"Whereas the playground in (Trinity Lutheran v. Comer) was not a religious structure — it just happened to be owned by a church — the BCTDA is planning on funding a religious art project inside the sanctuary of a church," Jayne wrote. "Prohibiting this religious project does not violate the church's Free Exercise rights."

The funding was awarded to the congregation last year via the TDA's Tourism Product Development Fund, which generates funding through a portion of hotel room tax revenues from overnight visitors in the county. It annually awards grants to eligible tourism capital projects with the understanding it must generate new and incremental room nights in Buncombe County.

Explore Asheville President and CEO Stephanie Pace Brown said in her December report released this week that contract development for the fresco is "on hold while under legal review with the TDA's attorney."

The fresco, expected to cost $200,000, will depict the Beatitudes passage found in the New Testament of the Bible. The Rev. Brian Combs said this week the fresco will not contain a God or Jesus Christ-like figure.

Instead, Combs said it will follow its own theology that "the human condition is what's most holy," particularly among the "most marginalized and vulnerable."

"The Blue Ridge Mountains, cityscape, and French Broad river all contextualize the fresco, reminding the viewer that blessing occurs where we're at, not where we think we need to be," he said in an email. "Finally, the central image is a shared meal, that regardless of class, creed or color, all are invited and everyone has a seat at the Table."

Jayne's letter, however, is largely indifferent to its contents, but its existence if it requires taxpayer dollars.

"Even if the BCTDA grant were to paint the church sanctuary a solid color, with the goal of encouraging visitors to enter the sanctuary," he said, "this would fly in the face of all of the Supreme Court rulings against governmental funding of religion."